The Spanish Manuscript
by Templarlady
Summary: Ulrich tells Bill and Alex the legend of an ancient vampire and they set out to find her.
1. Chapter 1

The Character of Bill belongs to Charliane Harris and Alan Ball. All other characters are the product of my warped imagination.

**The Spanish Manuscript**

The trouble started, as trouble so often does, because of the office party. One of the girls in the administrator's office was getting married and a large fancy dress party had been arranged for Thursday night. I'd told Bill I was going out with friends and I'd see him on Friday night but I hadn't managed to summon up the courage to tell him about my costume. Sarah and I had seen a couple of French maid's outfits in a hire shop a few days earlier and thought that they would be perfect. We'd be in a big group of people so we wouldn't be too embarrassed and there was safety in numbers.

The costumes were pretty much what you would expect really and consisted of stockings with a little garter, frilly knickers, a tiny little skirt which barely covered my buttocks, provided I didn't bend down, a white apron and a little cap. Finished off with a pair of sky high stiletto heels I looked...well, I'd rather not say what I looked like. I really had no idea what Bill would think of it. It certainly wasn't an outfit I'd ever think of wearing at any other time but hey, this was fancy dress after all! I covered the skimpy outfit with a long coat and set off.

The party started at one of the biggest nightclubs in town but quite soon degenerated into a pub crawl.

We visited half a dozen clubs and had several drinks in each one and although I tried to have as many soft drinks as I could get away with, I have to admit, by this stage I was quite drunk! That's probably why I failed to notice, when we split up into two groups, that I was in a group which happened to contain those of my colleagues who didn't know about Bill. Both my closest friends Sarah and Lou had gone with the other group as they were planning to get home soon. I had the day off the next day and I was having fun, so I thought I'd carry on, these things always seem like a good idea at the time. As did the suggestion from one of the guys that we should go to the vampire bar, Carmillas on the High Street.

I'd never been in there before but with the confidence of the exceedingly tipsy I thought, "Hey, I know all about vampires, I'll be fine!"

There were two enormous bouncers on the door, one human and one a vampire, he had olive skin and dark eyes and I noticed his fangs slide out a little as he studied my skimpy outfit for a moment. The inside of the club was dark, as you would expect, except for the dance floor which was lit up with coloured flashing lights. There was a long bar down one side of the room which was decorated in shades of grey, and booths upholstered in a rich burgundy velvet. Pete and Dave ordered in a round of drinks and we all stood chatting at the edge of the dance floor.

Our fancy dress costumes were attracting some attention from the other patrons so I wasn't too surprised when Dave, who was dressed as a cowboy, nudged me and said, "Hey Alex, I think you've pulled!"

I laughed. "Don't be so silly" I said.

"No really" he said "that guy at the bar's eyeing you up – oh, hey, he's a vampire!"

"Really?" I asked Babs who was standing in front of me looking over my shoulder.

"Oh yes….he's a looker, and he's definitely interested" she said approvingly.

"I looked over my shoulder towards the bar and, sure enough, there was a dark, good looking vampire leaning casually on the bar, looking over at me. He was casually dressed in jeans, a white shirt and a black leather biker jacket. His fangs were fully out and I could almost feel his eyes running over my French maid's outfit with approval, his full lips were curved up in a secretive little smile and his eyes were dark with desire…it was Bill.

Oh, dear! I watched as he stood up and began to walk across the dance floor towards me.

"Oooo…..he's coming over" said Babs excitedly.

Before I could do anything sensible Bill had swept me up into his arms and clamped his mouth on mine, one hand on the back of my head to hold me in place.

"Hey! Just a minute! What do you think you're doing!" Pete put his pint down on the nearest table, but before anyone could move Bill had picked me up effortlessly and tossed me over his shoulder, one hand casually on my frilly lace knickers, holding me steady. He carried me across the dance floor to the raucous cheers of some of the more drunk patrons and headed purposefully for a door marked "Private" behind the corner of the bar.

"Bill, wait…..put me down." I said urgently, but he ignored me and carried me through the door into a corridor and then through another door into a well appointed office containing a large desk and a leather upholstered chesterfield couch. He kicked the door shut behind him and resumed kissing me where he had left off.

"Whoa! Bill….No, wait!" I squeaked as he held me against the wall with one hand and slid the other one down over my hips heading for the cute little pink garter around my right thigh. "Wait!" I said breathlessly "What are my friends going to think?"

"You probably should have thought of that before coming in here in that outfit!" muttered Bill in a husky voice which sent shivers down my spine, pushing his hand up the tiny skirt and trying to work his fingers under the elastic of the lacy panties.

"No…no you don't understand!" I said. "They'll just think I've been snatched off the dance floor and carried off to be ravished by some sex-crazed vampire!"

Bill paused in his nuzzling and looked up. "They'll be right!" he said with a lascivious grin.

"No, no listen" I said, trying to hold him off. Too late I realised that my struggles were simply arousing him further as he took both my wrists in one of his hands and pinned them to the wall over my head. I stared up into his eyes, the pupils enormous and dark with an almost savage excitement. "It's a bit late for that!" he said.

"Listen Bill! I'm with a group of work colleagues, they don't know who you are….or what you are!" I said desperately.

"I should think they've got a pretty good idea by now!"

Just at that moment there was a rather tentative knock at the door and a voice said apologetically "Mr Compton…there's someone here to see you."

"Not now!" growled Bill "I'm busy!"

"I'm sorry Mr Compton," the voice became, if possible, even more apologetic. "It's the Police!"

"Oh those idiots!" I whispered, "I can't believe they called the Police!"

"Why on earth would they call the Police?" hissed Bill.

"I've been trying to tell you, but you won't let go of me long enough to listen!" I said quietly "They don't know who you are! They don't know that I know you! They think….." I stopped, unable to articulate quite what they must have thought.

Bill froze and stared at me, horrified. "You mean they thought…that I….Oh no!"

He released me hurriedly and directed me to the chesterfield. "Sit down over there…..I haven't torn anything have I?" he asked anxiously.

"No, I'm fine" I giggled.

"How much have you had to drink tonight?" he asked.

"Quite a lot actually, although I think I've sobered up a bit just recently!" I said, trying to arrange myself decently on the couch.

Bill took off his jacket and tossed it over the end of the sofa, then went over to the door, glanced back at me to check that I looked alright, ran his fingers through his hair and opened the door. "Yes?" he said sharply, standing in the doorway, his fangs still fully extended.

The vampire bouncer stood just outside with two police officers just behind him who, I noticed, backed off a bit when they saw Bill. "May we come in Sir" asked one. "We've received a complaint of assault."

Bill stood back to allow the policemen to enter the office and Pete slipped in behind them. "That's him!" he said pointing at Bill. "He just grabbed her off the dance floor and dragged her in here!" He turned to me anxiously "Are you okay Alex? Did he hurt you?"

"Yes, yes I'm fine…..and he didn't "drag" me anywhere, he carried me." I said patiently.

"Are you sure you're alright Miss?" asked the policeman.

Bill gave a sigh and sat down behind the desk in a large leather swivel chair. "There appears to have been some misunderstanding I'm afraid." He said in a slightly apologetic tone. "Miss Morgan and I are….acquainted, but it seems her friends were not aware of the fact and, understandably, panicked. I do apologise for wasting your time officers."

The policeman turned to me "Is that right Miss?" he asked.

"Yes, that's correct. We are…." I glanced at Bill, "acquainted." I noticed that the other officer was saying something into his radio.

"I take it that you don't wish to press charges?" he asked.

"Well…no." I said, smiling at Bill.

At this point the second policeman stepped forward, "I'm afraid we need to speak to the owner sir." He said. "Just standard procedure when we've been called in by a member of the public."

"You are." said Bill calmly.

"Sir?"

"You are speaking to the owner." I tried not to look surprised at this. After all, Bill had told me when we first met that he owned a number of businesses. He'd just never specified what they were, and I'd never asked.

The policeman consulted his notebook for a moment. "Mr William Thomas Compton?" he asked. Bill inclined his head gravely and smiled. "Very good sir."

I got up and went over to Pete. "I'm okay, really" I said, putting a hand on his arm "but thanks anyway."

"Look, I'm sorry if I've caused you any trouble" he said with obvious embarrassment "but I thought..." he looked over at Bill, who smiled calmly back.

"I should be the one to apologise" said Bill, "I should probably have introduced myself, I should have realised that you'd be...concerned...in the circumstances"

"That will be all then sir" said one of the policemen. The bouncer opened the door and the two policemen went out with Pete behind them. "Thank you Ilario" said Bill to the bouncer "see that this gentleman gets a drink on the house please."

As the door closed behind them I sat back down on the sofa and looked over at Bill. "So this is your office?" I asked.

He looked back at me, the secretive little smile creeping back as his gaze ran up my legs "Did you imagine that I was planning to ravish you in someone else's office?" he asked.

"That's what you were planning was it?" I asked with a little smile.

"Why do you think I had to come and sit down behind the desk?" he asked, shifting uncomfortably in the leather chair. I got up and walked over to the desk, my six inch heels imparting a slight sway to my hips, making the short skirt flick as I moved. I came around to his side of the desk and leaned back with my buttocks perched on the edge and my hands behind me.

Bill examined me with interest. "You really are tipsy aren't you?" He said.

"I've been out on the town!" I said and edged a little closer.

"Now….you know I'm far too much of a gentleman to take advantage of a lady when she's drunk" smiled Bill.

"Oh darn it! Are you….?" I perched on the edge of the desk and lifted my right leg up, the one with the garter. I placed my high heeled shoe on the edge of the chair, between his knees and began to slide it forward until the toe of my shoe was rubbing against the inside of his thigh. Bill reached down, carefully removed the shoe and, equally carefully, placed my stockinged foot back on his thigh.

"But I might want to be taken advantage of!" I said sulkily, wiggling my toes.

Bill chuckled "My, you are interesting when you're drunk aren't you?" he said. "You're a bad girl...come here" he patted his thighs and I kicked off my other shoe and climbed onto his lap. I leaned forward into his arms and kissed him, my tongue slipping between his lips and feeling his fangs slide out as I licked around them, the familiar scent of him in this unfamiliar place exciting me.

As I put my arms around his neck he put his hands under my thighs and stood up, lifting me onto the edge of the desk and kneeling down in front of me. He kissed the inside of my knee and began to place tiny kisses up my thigh until he reached the little garter which he tugged at with his teeth until it slid down my leg and fell, unnoticed, to the carpet under the desk. When he reached the top of my stocking he paused.

He slid his hands up my thighs and, slipping his fingers under the edge of the tiny lacy panties he eased them carefully down my legs, pulled them off and began to kiss the soft, warm skin above the stocking. I put my hands behind me on the desk and leaned back, feeling his tongue slide up the inside of my thigh. The months I had spent with Bill had destroyed most of my inhibitions regarding sex and the alcohol had eliminated any few which may have remained. All I wanted was for him to take me, as often and in as many ways as he could think of, and I knew he was extremely inventive!

I knew now the kind of pleasure he could give me and I wanted it. My heart began to pound with excitement as I felt his fangs scrape over my thigh and I moaned quietly. He slid his tongue up between my legs and kissed me, running the tip over my soft folds and flicking it over the sensitive little bud until I began to squirm on the desk. He gave me one last lick, then moved his mouth down and sank his fangs into my thigh, drinking deeply. I felt as though a knot in my stomach had suddenly loosened and released a warmth that flowed out and turned my muscles to water.

Bill suddenly pulled back and looked up at me, one hand on my thigh, his lips wet with my blood. For just a moment I saw his eyes glaze over as the alcohol in my blood hit him and he threw his head back and closed his eyes, luxuriating in the unusual sensation. After a moment, he opened his eyes and shook his head, as if to clear it.

"Oh my, you really are drunk, aren't you?" he said thickly.

"You can taste it?" I asked, surprised.

"Oh yes!" he said, "are you sure you're okay. I meant what I said about not wanting to take advantage of you."

I wrapped my legs around his neck and pulled him closer to me. "Oh, but I want you to take advantage of me Bill. Please take advantage of me!"

At this he stood up slowly, regarding me spreadeagled on the desk. I gave a little shiver as I watched him lick my blood from his lips, watched him examine my body, feeling for the first time that perhaps there was something dark and dangerous beneath that calm, cool surface, and then he had lifted me by the waist, turned me around and pushed me down on my stomach over the edge of the desk. I felt the harsh denim of his jeans against my bare buttocks as he leant over me and heard the clink of his belt buckle. My heart began to pound harder and he gave a little growl deep in his chest as he heard it speed up.

I reached forward and laid my hands amongst Bill's paperwork as I felt his swollen shaft nudge between my lips and begin to push into me. He gave a little groan and reached forward to hold my hips as he began to drive himself into me harder, pushing me against the padded leather edge of the desk. I heard a slight rustling sound and had to stifle a giggle at the thought of Bill standing behind his elaborate desk with his jeans around his ankles. Then I felt my flesh begin to twitch and I forgot about everything else.

When the room had come back into focus and my pounding heart had slowed down a little he picked me up, stepped out of the jeans and carried me over to the sofa, sat down and drew me onto his lap. He lifted me gently and pulled me down onto him, his still hard rod sliding easily back into my wet sheath. He reached up and fastened his mouth on mine kissing me deeply, his tongue mimicking the actions of his shaft, inside me, moving in that familiar rhythm in time to the movement of his hips under me. I put my hands on the back of the chesterfield leaning over him, my long hair had come loose from the cap at some point and fell in a wave down his unbuttoned shirt.

He pulled his mouth from mine and began to nuzzle at my throat, the sharp tips of his long fangs pushing tentatively at my skin.

"I want more" he breathed "It tastes so incredible, I've never tasted anything like it before."

He held me with one hand on my hip and the other behind my head and drew his tongue over the large vein in my neck, feeling the pounding pulse under my skin. Shifting his position slightly so that his rapid thrusts hit just the right spot, he waited until my body began to shiver in his hands and bit down hard into my throat. I screamed out his name and he reached up and clapped his hand over my mouth, stifling my moans as he drank deep draughts of my alcohol laced blood.

Just as I began to feel dizzy he pulled back and caught me in his arms as I fell forward weakly onto his chest. He gave a low rumbling growl and slid sideways on the couch until he was lying across it holding me on top of him, one hand in the small of my back holding me tightly to him, preventing me from falling. We lay in each others arms for a moment, Bill's eyes glazed with the after-effects of all the Margaritas I had drunk earlier. Then he shook his head again and looked at me. I was lying with my head on his chest, the room was blurring before my eyes, my hand slipped off his shoulder and fell limply to the carpet.

"Alex?" Bill whispered into my ear. I could hear him, but somehow his voice appeared to be coming from very far away. "Alex!" his voice was more urgent now but I was still unable to do anything about it, I felt that I should just go to sleep and everything would be alright. I closed my eyes with a little sigh.

Suddenly I felt myself being lifted as Bill stood up with me in his arms. My head fell back loosely over his arm and my hair trailed to the floor as he carried me towards the rear wall of the office. Moments later he had sat down on a narrow bed and pulled me onto his lap. I felt his cool lips brush against mine and thought vaguely that a kiss would be nice. I opened my lips and immediately his mouth closed on mine, I felt his tongue slide between my lips and tasted his sweet blood leaking onto my tongue. I clamped my mouth on his and drank instinctively, I wasn't really capable of thinking about it but it seemed that my body knew that this was the right thing to do and simply went ahead without consulting me.

When I began to wake up a little I realised that Bill had sunk his razor sharp fangs through his own tongue! I blinked and pulled back from him.

"No Alex, not yet" he murmured "you need more. Come on." He put his hand behind my head and pulled me to him, kissing me again and I took another few mouthfuls and then began to struggle to sit up.

"I'm okay, really. Just a little dizzy." I muttered weakly.

Bill held me tight and examined my eyes carefully. "Okay, I think you'll be alright now, so long as you get some rest. I'm so sorry, I've never tasted anything so good before!" Bill looked down at me guiltily. "It must be the combination of the fae blood and the alcohol, it was beyond doubt the most delicious thing I've ever tasted!"

I smiled at him slightly blearily. "Perhaps I should get tight more often!" I said.

"Alex, no!" Bill looked horrified at the thought. "I could have killed you!"

"But you didn't, did you?" I whispered. "You stopped in time. Even though you'd never tasted anything as good, you still stopped." Bill opened his mouth and I could see that he was about to argue the point but then he sighed and brushed a strand of hair off my face.

"You have more faith in me than I do, do you know that?" he said with a little smile.

"Where are we anyway?" I asked. This doesn't look like your office! We were in a small dark room, completely light tight, with just a cupboard and a narrow bed. Light was coming in through the door from the room beyond.

"It's just a small safe room behind the office. The door is behind a bookcase, there isn't much space to work with I'm afraid but I, or any of the vampire staff can spend the day here if necessary. He pulled a few cushions up to the end of the bed and lifted me onto them. "You need to rest for a while."

As he spoke there was another knock at the outer office door.

Bill looked up, clearly annoyed. "What now!" He stood up and pulled a paisley robe from the back of the door and spread it gently over me. "Wait here, I'll deal with this" he said, heading out into the office. I heard him cross the room and there was a pause as he picked up his jeans and pulled them on, fastening the belt as he walked to the outer door. I heard the door open and then there was another pause. Bill said "Come in" and two sets of footsteps moved across the office.

Intrigued, I got up quietly and moved to a position from which I could look out through the gap of the slightly open door, into the office. I could just see a strip of the room, including the edge of Bill's desk. As I peered out Bill walked across and sat down behind the desk with his back to me. "What can I do for you?" he asked.

"Your staff appeared to be under the impression that you were...engaged" said a vaguely familiar voice. Just as I was wondering where I'd heard that voice before, the speaker walked over to Bill's desk and came into view. Ulrich! What on earth was he doing here? Bill didn't reply, he simply leaned forward and placed his elbows on the desk, looking at Ulrich, with a mildly enquiring expression.

"Paperwork?" asked Ulrich, eyeing the disarray on Bill's desk. I blushed, recalling our recent activities on that desk as he leaned down and picked up the pink garter from the floor. He held out his hand, the garter dangling from his index finger.

"Yours?" he asked with a smile. "No, not your colour! Tell me, does Alexandra know that you entertain strippers in your office?"

Bill reached over and took the garter from Ulrich's outstretched hand. "I don't!" he said. "Now what can I do for you?"

Ulrich leaned casually on the corner of Bill's desk. "Well, I'd like to speak with you and Alexandra, if that's possible. Provided she's still speaking to you that is..." he said, his eyes straying to the pink garter in Bill's hand.

"Okay," I thought, "this has gone far enough." I picked up the robe from the narrow bed and put it on over what was left of my maid's costume. I was turning up the collar, trying to hide the bite mark on my neck when it occurred to me that, maybe a little evidence that I belonged to Bill might not be a bad thing. I peeped out of the gap behind the bookcase and saw Bill turn to look in my direction. He made a slight, beckoning gesture with his head and I pushed the bookcase forward a little and walked out.

Ulrich turned at the sound and his eyebrows rose as he saw me. "Oh, I see!" he said, his smile widening. "What a shame I missed the show!" he turned to Bill, "a little role playing perhaps?"

"I've been to a fancy dress party." I said mildly.

Bill stood up "You have no need to explain yourself to him Alex." he said. "Now, what did you want to talk to us about Ulrich?"

Ulrich smiled at us. "I'm sorry, I should apologise since actually I'm about to ask you both for your help."

"What on earth for?" asked Bill, surprised.

"It's a long story, perhaps you should both sit down."

Bill pressed the intercom on his desk and said. "Ilario, bring two bottles of Tru Blood to my office would you please...and..." he looked over at me, "a coffee for Miss Morgan?"

"Yes," I said quickly "a coffee would be...lovely!"

He got up, pulled out the leather chair from behind the desk and offered it to Ulrich with a smile as I sat down on the couch. Evidently he hadn't quite got over the flowers in the honeymoon suite and didn't want to risk having Ulrich and I sitting on the same couch! I'd better be very careful here I thought, hopefully the coffee would kick start my dozy brain.

There was a brief knock at the door and the vampire bouncer I had noticed earlier came in with a tray. He put it down on the edge of the desk with a nod to Bill and turned to the door, just as Ulrich asked Bill "Have you ever heard the legend of the Princess Azaria?"

Bill looked blank but the bouncer stopped dead with his hand on the door handle. Both Bill and Ulrich's heads snapped around to him.

"Ilario?" said Bill quietly "you know what he's talking about?"

"I've heard stories sir….from my maker." Ilario turned to Bill and smiled "He was from Peru originally. He came north into Mexico where I was born. I recall the name, but not much else.

"Perhaps you should stay and hear this" said Ulrich taking one of the bottles of Tru Blood and sitting down in Bill's chair. Ilario came over and sat on the arm of the sofa while Bill picked up the coffee and the other Tru Blood, sat down next to me and put his arm around my shoulders.

"I understand" said Ulrich carefully "that you both know Lazlo Petrovic?"

Bill growled softly and said "I met him in the 30's and we've both encountered him since. I'm sure you're aware of the circumstances."

"Well, I've spoken to Charles. Mind you, he was almost incoherent with rage at the time." Ulrich gave a little smile. "He certainly won't forgive Lazlo in a hurry! In fact I was quite surprised that he handed him over to The Authority for questioning and didn't simply deliver the true death himself. He says that Lazlo attacked both of you, and by the time he had recovered you had managed to subdue him and chain him in silver. Is that correct?"

"Yes, that's correct."

To his credit Bill's expression didn't flicker by so much as a fraction as he said this. He had promised me that he would not reveal my part in "subduing" Lazlo. I have to say that Ulrich looked a little unconvinced, but he said nothing. We were, after all, the only people there at the time and Lazlo was well and truly "subdued" by the time Charles' security team arrived.

"Well, I'm sorry to say that he has escaped from our custody!" said Ulrich. "We foolishly allowed him to be released on the understanding that he would remain at our headquarters but he knocked out his guard and fled."

Bill gave a sigh and rolled his eyes.

"Yes…..I know!" said Ulrich "it was foolish of us not to keep him restrained, but we had no real reason to think that he would do that, we treated him well, with the respect due to his age and position. Unfortunately, it appears that he escaped because he came into possession of certain information which he should never have had access to. Information about Azaria."

Ulrich took a swig of his Tru Blood and continued. "Azaria was a princess of the Inca people. She lived several hundred years before the Spanish invasion of Peru. She was supposedly the daughter of Pachacuti the Sapa Inca but in fact, the legends say that she was part fae."

I felt Bill's arm tense around me although he gave no other sign. Ulrich regarded me carefully. "I should, perhaps, explain that I have spoken with Charles in depth about you Miss Morgan." He said.

Bill's fangs lengthened and he glared angrily at Ulrich. "He had no right to tell you anything about her!" he snarled.

Ulrich smiled "I have no intention of making the information public, don't worry. I only bring it up as it is highly relevant to my story. You see Azaria was turned when she was about 18 years old, by another vampire who also has fae blood…Lazlo!

It appears that he travelled extensively in the years after he was himself turned and one of his favourite haunts was South America. On one of these visits he met Azaria and fell hopelessly in love with her. In order to keep her with him he turned her, it is not known whether or not she agreed to this, but the legends say that for quite some time she and Lazlo remained with her people, feeding only on a few trusted servants who they glamoured but otherwise trying to live normally amongst them whilst only coming out at night.

Lazlo tells us that after a dozen or so years, the fact that her appearance had not changed at all began to arouse the suspicions of the priests. Especially since the people loved her as a protector and had begun to worship her as a goddess. He told her what we all learn, that it was too risky to remain in the same place for too long, that it was time to leave and that she would be coming back to Europe with him. To his shock she flatly refused and told him that she would never leave her people, and when he tried to compel her, as her maker, she was able to resist him. We assume that this was because of the fae blood, but I admit we don't really understand how the blood affects vampires – there are so few left now…." Ulrich paused, eyeing me speculatively and I felt Bill's arm tighten protectively around my shoulders.

"Anyway, as you can imagine, this infuriated Lazlo and, in a fit of anger, he went to the priests and told them what she was, he gave them information on where she lay during the daylight hours and how to capture and restrain her."

Bill's eyes went wide with shock. "He betrayed her? His own child?"

"Oh he regretted it later" sighed Ulrich, "but by then it was too late. The priests had found Azaria and placed her in a box bound in silver. However, when her people found out what had happened they were horrified, they didn't believe what the priests told them until it was demonstrated that the silver burned her. The priests tried to tell them that she was an unnatural monster and a danger to them but they didn't believe this either and refused to allow the priests to destroy her, as they wished to do. Eventually they came to a terrible compromise. Azaria was to be placed in a box, a coffin, covered with silver plate and placed in a secret chamber in one of the temples. The priests assured her people that she could not die, but would remain with her people for eternity."

Bill gave a horrified cry. "She might not die but she would suffer unimaginably! You're not saying that they actually did this?" he turned to Ilario who bowed his head and said "This is what I have heard also, the legends say she was placed in a silver coffin but that it's location was lost long ago."

"But possibly not any more!" said Ulrich.

Ilario looked up "She has been found?"

"No, no…" said Ulrich "We are a long way from that. The Temple was said to have been built by the people of Cuzco, somewhere in the Urubamba valley. Agents of The Authority have been searching for it for centuries with no success, but it seems that we were looking in the wrong place. A manuscript was recently discovered in the Vatican archives, written by a Spanish monk, Diego Rodrigues, which records the discovery of a silver coffin which was brought back to Spain by the Catholic Church and hidden in some secret vault. Unfortunately the manuscript appears to be incomplete, if it was ever completed at all!"

"And this is why Lazlo fled from The Authority? To search for her?" asked Bill.

"We think so" answered Ulrich, "but who can say what his motives might be?"

"But why would The Authority be interested anyway?" asked Bill, evidently confused. "Surely she wouldn't…..after hundreds of years….be still…?"

"Viable?" asked Ulrich. "We don't know…..that's why we want to find her. No vampire has ever been confined for so long. We have no idea what effect it would have, or even if it would be possible to revive her."

Bill and Ilario simply stared at Ulrich, horrified.

"Um…excuse me?" I said quietly. The three vampires stared at me. "How could she possibly survive?"

"She couldn't!" said Bill. He looked at Ulrich "could she?"

Ulrich looked at me uneasily and sighed. "How much do you know about this?" he asked Bill.

"Not much, thankfully!" said Bill "I've heard of it being threatened as a punishment. To be locked in a coffin bound with silver and starved for years. I understand that your body would wither and dry out like an Egyptian mummy, but surely you couldn't survive in that state for hundreds of years? You'd go insane!"

"We don't really know" said Ulrich calmly. "As I said no-one has ever been confined for this length of time. But the best theory we have is that, after the first ten years or so, the body goes into a state similar to hibernation. Personally I would think that insanity might be preferable and this is why we don't want Lazlo to find her before we do. If he is able to revive her, we have no idea what she might do or how dangerous she might be."

"This is all very interesting Ulrich, but what has it to do with us?" asked Bill. "Other than the fact that you have let Lazlo slip through your fingers that is!"

Ulrich sat back with a sigh. "I don't really know." He said, "but the fact that Alex has the fae blood makes her attractive to Lazlo, as you know, so I felt that you had a right to know and also you have a vested interest in his capture, for that reason. That was why I came here tonight.

But I have to say that Charles is considerably impressed with your talents in public relations Bill, and Alex has proven herself to be a brave and resourceful friend to our kind. I hoped that you would agree to help us in the search if you could."

"But how, exactly?" asked Bill, evidently puzzled.

Ulrich drained the bottle of Tru Blood and stood up. "Oh, I don't know! Maybe I'd hoped that having someone with the fae blood on our side would help…..we're in trouble here Bill. Having Lazlo at large is a risk in itself, but if he were to find her...well, we have no idea what might happen. After what happened in the US with Russell Edgington it would only take one incident to ruin all our work. He could single-handedly destroy years of progress with the human public.

Our agent in the Vatican Archives discovered the manuscript and translated it but when we sent someone to collect it he was gone, and the manuscript and the translation were both missing. He was later found dead, his body had been dumped in the Tiber, but the police report suggested that he had been mauled by a large animal."

Bill sat up suddenly. "What kind of animal?" he asked.

"The report didn't specify, but we think it was probably a wolf" said Ulrich.

I had been sitting quietly listening but at this point I just couldn't help myself. "A wolf?" I said. "In Rome? That's a bit unlikely isn't it? Unless it was suckling a pair of abandoned twins!"

All three vampires turned and stared at me. Ulrich raised a questioning eyebrow at Bill.

"No" he said "I've not mentioned anything. But why would they be involved?"

"Why would who be involved?" I asked.

"Money" said Ulrich flatly "Lazlo has plenty of it and he could afford to pay them well."

"Um….excuse me!" I said firmly."I seem to be missing something important here!"

Bill and Ulrich looked at each other doubtfully and then at me.

"Look, if you want my help I think I have a right to know what's going on!" I said. It's not easy to look haughtily offended whilst wearing the ravaged remains of a French maid's fancy dress costume under a man's paisley bathrobe, but I managed it.

Bill turned to me and took my hand. "We think that Lazlo is using weres to help him during the daytime." he explained. "Werewolves."

I gaped at him in surprise. I really wanted to laugh out loud but I could see from his expression that he was serious. "Werewolves?" I said softly.

When I actually thought about it I wondered why It had never occurred to me before. If vampires could exist, and faeries, then why not werewolves. God knows what else was out there that we poor, innocent humans didn't know about...but we did know about them though didn't we, I thought to myself, at least our ancestors did. We just didn't believe in them any more, we were far too clever and sophisticated for that!

Bill was watching me quietly, trying to gauge my reaction.

"Werewolves," I said carefully "okay…..anything else I should know about that you haven't seen fit to mention?"

Bill winced and squeezed my hand "It's not that I intended to keep it from you, it just never came up!"

I suddenly recalled Sookie's words to me in Amsterdam._ "Bill's good at only telling you what he thinks you need to know." _

"So what are they exactly? Men who can change into wolves? Are there any around here?"

"Yes" said Bill calmly "There's a pack in this area, I know the packmaster quite well actually, he's a reasonable man. He gave me an apologetic look, "There are also a couple of shifters. Shapeshifters. Weres are men and women who change into one specific animal. Shifters can change into anything."

I thought about this for a moment. "So these huge black cats that people say they see every so often all over England, but there's never any evidence for, they never find any bodies for instance – they could be weres, or shifters?"

"Very probably" said Bill with a smile, "like "The Beast of Bodmin Moor" you mean?"

"There are lots of them, people report them all the time, but no-one ever believes them because there's no evidence, they just assume they've had too much to drink, or have a vivid imagination." I said amazed at this possible explanation.

"Humans are very good at rationalizing away what they don't understand" said Ulrich. "It's been very useful to us in the past!"

I sat on the sofa, my hand in Bill's cool grasp, my head spinning. "So, do you, like, work together?" I asked.

"No!" snapped Bill and Ulrich simultaneously. "We don't generally mix" said Bill, "weres can be dangerous and untrustworthy and they hate vampires, but you can buy them with enough money! They thought we were insane to reveal ourselves to humans. They usually stay well away from trouble which might involve you."

Ulrich gave a short laugh "They have more than enough trouble of their own." He said. "They're vicious and argumentative and love nothing more than a good fight. It takes a strong man to control a pack."

"But you think that Lazlo is employing some?" I asked.

"It seems probable" said Ulrich, "unless there's a real wolf loose in Vatican City. Which, as you pointed out, is unlikely!"

There was a ringing noise and Ulrich pulled a phone out of his pocket, glanced at the caller ID and flipped it open. "Yes? Any news?" he asked. "He's been in contact? Good! Does he have the second copy?" Ulrich began to pace up and down the office "If he has it, then why hasn't it been collected yet?" He stopped and listened for a moment. "What do you mean he won't give it to us!" he snarled into the phone. "Damn it, why does he have to be so difficult?" I could faintly hear a voice explaining something as Ulrich began to pace again. After a moment he sighed and said "Yes, I understand. We may be able to help you with that. I'll get back to you."

He walked back to the desk and sat down again.

"Well, the good news is that there is a copy of the translated manuscript in existence. Our agent gave it to a friend of his the day before he disappeared. The bad news is that he refuses to give it to us."

"Does he want money?" asked Bill, "surely The Authority could afford to pay him for it?"

"No, that's not the problem" sighed Ulrich. "Apparently his friend's death has terrified him. He's afraid that he's being watched and that, if he is seen with one of our agents, or a member of The Authority he'll end up face down in the river as well."

"He could well be right!" said Bill. "So what can you do?"

"He has left Rome and fled to his home city of Naples, with the copy of the manuscript. He refuses to tell us where he is or have anything to do with any vampire. He truly believes that he is being watched and if he is seen in the company of a vampire it may cost him his life."

"So how could I help?" asked Bill.

"Well, you probably couldn't" admitted Ulrich, "but Alex now...he would probably agree to meet her..."

Bill face darkened immediately. "Now wait a minute, don't you think she's done enough for you? She could have been killed after helping you in Cairo. You know Lazlo's interested in her and you want to send her in as your agent! Are you crazy?"

Ulrich had the grace to look a little embarrassed at this outburst. "'I assure you I appreciate everything she has done for us and I'm sure she'll be fine. Our best information says that Lazlo has left Italy, with the manuscript. You would go with her, obviously. I doubt if Reynaldo would object to meeting a young human woman, one who has no obvious connection with The Authority."

"What about the press conference?" I asked quietly.

Bill and Ulrich both stared at me for a moment as if they had forgotten that I was there.

"What press conference?" asked Ulrich.

"The one at The Osiris in Luxor, I was there, with you."

Ulrich thought for a moment. "As I recall, the other girl did most of the talking didn't she...the reporter?"

"Susie" I said. "Yes, you're right, she did actually."

Bill reached for me and gathered me into his arms. "I can't believe you're taking this seriously!" he said. "What if he's right? What if he is being watched?"

"Well, no-one's going to be surprised to see a young Italian male chatting up a pretty girl now are they?" smiled Ulrich.

Bill gave a low growl but said nothing.

I sighed and looked up at Bill, "I can't help thinking about that poor girl" I said "Could she really be still...suffering, after all this time?" I reached up and stroked his face. "What if it were you, Bill? Shouldn't we try to help her if we can?"

Bill pulled me onto his lap and hugged me. "You see, that's the difference between you and Ulrich, sweetheart. Ulrich wants to find Azaria to prevent any political fallout which might damage The Authority's public relations. You just feel sorry for her!" he placed the tip of his finger on the end of my nose, "and that's why I love you."

"That's not entirely fair!" said Ulrich with a laugh. "I want to help her too. But if we can manage it without any "political fallout" that would be a bonus."

Bill and I just looked at each other for a moment.

"So that's settled is it?" asked Ulrich. Something in the tone of his voice made Bill and I break apart and look over at him, suspiciously.

"Why?" asked Bill.

"Because Reynaldo is going to bring the translation of the manuscript to the Basilica of San Lorenzo Maggiore in Naples at noon, the day after tomorrow..."


	2. Chapter 2

I'm always amazed at how fast you can get things done when you have money and influence. It's probably because I've never had very much of either! It took Bill and Ulrich between them about half a dozen phone calls to arrange for Bill and I to be in Naples the following day. One call to Anubis was sufficient to arrange all our travel requirements and the hotel bookings, I hated to think how much they must charge. However, this time, The Authority was paying, that's what the other phone calls were about!

Unfortunately the hotel in Naples didn't have the light tight rooms and tough security arrangements of the more modern, "vampire friendly" hotels and so Ulrich arranged for Bill to be provided with security by The Authority. He would just have to remain in the travel pod during the day. We flew out the next day and arrived in Naples just after dusk. The hotel had been selected as it was not far from San Lorenzo Maggiore and when we had checked in and settled down a bit, Bill and I went out to walk to the church and check out the meeting place and the area around it.

As we strolled hand in hand through the narrow streets I almost forgot why we were here and just enjoyed being in Bill's company in the warm night air of southern Italy.

We stood outside the great basilica of San Lorenzo gazing up at the statues of the saints and then Bill put his arm around me and we walked down to the plaza and sat down outside a lively little bar where Bill ordered me a glass of wine.

"Just one!" I insisted with a laugh.

"Oh don't worry!" he said smiling down at me "I'm not planning to get you drunk." He leaned forward and whispered in my ear "not unless I've got you somewhere private!"

I sat back in my chair and sipped my wine, watching Bill. He was leaning back in the shadows, observing the couples wandering around the square hand in hand, just as we had been doing.

"Penny for your thoughts?" I said with a smile.

He leaned forward and put his elbows on the table, his luminous blue eyes gazing into mine with a thoughtful expression. After a moment he spoke.

"For one hundred and forty years I have watched people going about their business, doing normal, human things and I have always felt...separate, apart from them. There have been so few times when I felt that I was...almost normal. That I fitted in, that I was part of life. Those times are so rare that they are very precious to me." He took my hand in his. "This is one of those times."

He reached over and gently brushed a tiny tear from my cheek and we sat quietly, hand in hand, in the moonlight until it was time to return to the hotel.

I woke the next morning and rolled over in the double bed, expecting to find Bill's still form next to me. It was quite a shock therefore to find the bed empty. I had a brief moment of panic before I remembered that the room was not light tight and sat up to see the closed travel pod with the Anubis logo on it sitting on the floor on the other side of the room. I looked at the clock and calculated that I had time for a shower and something to eat before heading off for my rendezvous with Reynaldo, the manuscript courier!

Propped up by the door was a dark grey rucksack which had been handed to us when we arrived, together with a note from Ulrich instructing me to take it with me to the noon meeting. Apparently Reynaldo would recognise me by the rucksack. Well, I guess I'd have looked a little incongruous with a carnation in my buttonhole!

As I left the hotel I caught myself checking around the entrance. There were two mothers hurrying a group of small children towards a bakers shop on the other side of the road, a couple of ordinary looking men sitting on a bench opposite, reading newspapers and two young men in jeans and T shirts one with long dark greasy looking hair and the other bald, with a striking tattoo down his neck consulting a map. A smartly dressed woman carrying a briefcase was just coming past me up the steps into the foyer.

"You're getting paranoid again!" I told myself firmly as I slung the rucksack over my shoulder and headed for the church.

I arrived a few minutes before noon and strolled into the cool, dark interior. There were a number of tourists wandering around with guide books and I took one from the stand at the entrance and sat down on a pew at the back of the nave to read it, carefully placing the rucksack in full view on the floor at my feet. After about ten minutes a young man came over and sat down next to me.

"May I borrow that for a moment?" he asked with a smile, gesturing at the guide I was reading. He had the most delightful Italian accent I had ever heard.

"Sure" I said, passing it over to him. He sat reading for a few moments as I gazed around the inside of the church and then he handed it back to me.

"Grazie" he said and got up with a smile. As I watched him walk away, out into the sunlit street it occurred to me that the guide in my hand felt a little thicker somehow. I looked down and saw that there were half a dozen typed pages inside it. The translation of the Spanish monk's manuscript.

"Smooth, very smooth," I thought to myself. "There's a man who's watched too many James Bond movies!

I slipped the manuscript into my rucksack and wandered around the church for a while until I was sure that he had got a good distance away, then I headed out into the afternoon sunshine. My relaxed and happy mood lasted until I turned the corner by the hotel. There were many more people about now and there was quite a crowd walking past the hotel entrance but there were two young men sitting on the bench where I had noticed the newspaper readers earlier. They wore jeans and T shirts and one was bald with a noticeable tattoo on his neck. They were watching the hotel!

Screwing up every ounce of courage I possessed I walked calmly down the street in the middle of the crowd, past the bench, past the hotel and straight on around the far corner without a pause. Once out of sight around the corner my legs nearly gave way beneath me and I leaned on the wall, panting as if I had run a mile. Why, oh why did I allow myself to be talked into these things? I vowed that if I got out of this in one piece Bill was going to have to make it up to me, big time.

Well...that wasn't really fair actually, I had wanted to help after all.

Okay, so I couldn't go back to the hotel, so what should I do now? I had no idea who these guys were. Were they really looking for us? Were they working for Lazlo? Were they even human? The further away from them I was, the more comfortable I would feel so I headed slowly back to the plaza just down the street from San Lorenzo. I went into a little coffee shop on the square and sat down at a table well away from the window. Getting out my phone, I called Bill's number and left him a concise message describing what had happened and also describing the two men. I told him where I was and left him strict instructions to come and get me as soon as possible and flipped the phone shut. I was confident that, provided he was forewarned, Bill would be able to deal with them. Then I reached down to the rucksack and pulled out the manuscript. I had several hours to wait until dusk so I ordered a pot of coffee and began to read.

_It was in the seventh month of the year of Our Lord 1537 that I became a traitor to my country and to my church. Although, having followed the armies of Hernando Pizarro and his brothers through New Spain for twelve months, I have to say that the disillusionment I had suffered from witnessing the wanton acts of greed and cruelty inflicted on the native people by my countrymen had meant that I no longer gave much thought to those ideals of honour and nobility with which I had arrived on these shores. I had come here in hopes of converting the pagan natives to the noble Catholic faith, but within six months of my arrival I had begun to accept that the Inca people had more nobility than many of my Catholic brothers._

_It was on the San Carlos, a prison hulk, an old dismasted wooden galleon which lay at anchor out in the Urubamba river that I first heard the story of the goddess Azaria. I had gone on board this disgusting vessel armed with my bible, a thick leatherbound volume embossed with the two crossed arrows which were the symbol of my monastery in Spain, in the hope of bringing the Word of God to the unfortunate pagan Indians who were the prisoners of the Spanish army. There was one group of Inca warriors who appeared to be prepared to listen to me. Their spokesman was a man called Manco who struck me as being possessed of more than usual intelligence. For example, in the months during which he had been confined in the San Carlos he had learned enough of our language to make himself understood, and to translate for his friends. I had been visiting this group for a few weeks when one day I arrived to find an argument going on._

_As I walked in through the barred wooden door which had been opened for me by the guards Manco came over to me. "Brother Diego" he said "is it true what we have heard? That the great lord Hernando is on his way here, looking for treasure?"_

"_Yes, I have heard this." I answered. "Commander Pizarro is on his way here now."_

_I saw a look of absolute panic cross Manco's face"Then I must find a way out of here. He will find her, he will be drawn by the silver and if he removes it, all will be lost." _

"_Find who Manco?" I asked._

"_Azaria!" he said, then to my surprise he made the sign of the cross. "This is the sign of your God, yes?" he asked. "Azaria is our goddess, our protector, the spirit of our people."_

"_She is made of silver?" I asked. "An idol of some kind?" I knew that a solid silver idol would draw Hernando like a fly to honey. _

"_No, no she is real. I was told the story by my uncle who is priest to the Sun God in the Temple of the Sun, the Corichanca, in Cuzco. She lived several hundred years ago and was the daughter of our king Pachacuti, the Sapa Inca, but she was taken by an evil spirit. This spirit gave her great power, but also made her very dangerous and so the priests imprisoned her in a box covered with silver and placed her in a secret temple in this valley. So long as she is contained within the Temple she is able to protect our people as she wished to do. But if your Lord Hernando removes her from the box to take the silver then he will release the evil spirit. Only the power of the sun god Inti will be able to stop her."_

_Manco put his hand on my arm "Please, Brother Diego, you must help us to find her and to hide her where she will be safe from your treasure hunters."_

I paused and poured myself another cup of coffee. Evidently the Inca warriors had retained a version of the same story which Ulrich and Ilario had told Bill and I back in England. A version slightly distorted by the priests of the sun. I took a sip of coffee and turned the page.

_narrow path running alongside the river dodging hanging vines..._

That didn't make sense! I turned back a page, checking – damn it! There was a page missing! Did it matter though? I read on to discover Brother Diego and two other monks heading down the Urubamba valley with Manco, the Inca warrior. They were evidently heading for the hidden temple so I didn't think I'd missed anything important.

At that moment I felt a wave of contentment wash over me and I looked up to see Bill standing in the doorway.

I woke at dusk to a vague feeling of unease. I had felt a shock of fear earlier during my daytime sleep but it had faded so quickly that I was not sure if it was genuine or part of some dark dream dredged up from the depths of my subconcious mind. Unfastening the latch on the inside of the travel pod I climbed out and stretched, looking around for Alex. She was nowhere to be seen but the bathroom door was closed. I walked over and tapped on the door.

"Alex? Are you in there?" The door swung open as I touched it and the room beyond was empty. The unease began to grow. Perhaps she had gone down to the restaurant for something to eat. I opened the door to see Ulrich's two security guards outside.

"Has Miss Morgan gone down to the restaurant?" I asked.

"Sorry Sir" said one of the guards "We haven't seen her since she left just before noon."

"What? She hasn't come back?" I dashed back into the room and pulled my phone from my jacket pocket. Yes! There was a message from her. As I listened to the message I moved quietly to the window, staying well back so that I could not be seen, and glanced down into the street below. Sure enough, there were the two men she was describing, sitting patiently on the bench opposite the main entrance. As I watched them I heard a low rumbling noise, getting louder and moments later two huge Harley-Davidson motorcycles rolled over the cobbles and pulled up outside the hotel. I watched as the two men on the bench got up and began to talk to the bikers. Standing with my back to the wall beside the partly open window I sniffed cautiously at the air. Weres! I flipped the phone open again and dialled Ulrich.

Bill stood in the doorway of the café wearing a pair of jeans, heavy boots and the leather biker jacket he had worn that night at Carmillas. He smiled with relief when he saw me and came over to my table.

"You got it then?" he said, looking down at the papers on the table in front of me. "Better pack up though, we need to get out of here fast. Those men you spotted outside the hotel? They're Weres, and there are more of them, I managed to get out of the hotel without them noticing but they'll be able to track me before long. Fortunately Ulrich was able to provide me with transport, he's waiting for us at The Authority's base in Sorrento."

I packed up the rucksack and handed the manuscript to Bill.

"Here, you'd better take this" I said as we left the café.

We hurried around the corner into the square and I stopped dead. Parked beside the kerb was a gleaming black Ducati. Bill slipped the copy of the manuscript into his jacket, zipped it up and flung his leg over the bike, flicking up the sidestand with his boot. "Come on. Get on, quick!" he urged. He pressed the ignition and the engine fired with a roar.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked, tightening up the straps of the rucksack. "Do bear in mind that I could get killed on this thing even if you couldn't."

As I spoke we heard a howling coming from the direction of the basilica.

"If you stay here you could get killed as well!" said Bill reaching for my hand. "Come on Alex, you can do this!"

I reached over the bike and flipped down the pillion footrest on the far side. "Just promise me you'll be careful" I pleaded "I've never ridden pillion behind a dead man before!"

"I'll try and drive as if I'm still alive, I promise!" laughed Bill as I put my foot on the peg and swung myself up behind him. The Ducati was not really designed for two people and so there was no rack, no bars, nothing to hold on to except Bill. I put my arms around his hips and locked my fingers together just over his belt buckle.

"Okay, go!" I said. I saw Bill's hand twist the throttle and the rumbling growl of the engine increased to the roar of a great cat as it leaped forward across the square, heading for the arched gateway to the right. As we turned to go through the arch I caught a glimpse of several low grey shapes running into the square followed by a couple of big, powerful motorbikes. Then we were out of the square and racing down the hill towards the coast.

I clung to Bill as we headed through the narrow streets of Naples towards the coast road. I could feel the tension in his body as he swept the powerful machine around the scant late night traffic, weaving our way out of the town and onto the road to Ercolano, the ancient city of Herculaneum. The old coast road was dark once we left the edge of the city but I got an occasional glance in the mirrors and I could see a single bright headlight sweeping along the road behind us. Then another joined it, two motorcycles! I saw Bill's head turn as he checked the mirrors and saw them and suddenly the Ducati speeded up even more. The scenery was blurring as we raced along and with every bend I looked down to see the concrete surface of the road flying past a foot from my knee. I held tight to Bill and prayed that he knew what he was doing.

After a few miles my pounding heart began to slow a little and I kept a closer eye on the mirrors. The following bikes appeared to be bigger and heavier than ours and, although powerful and fast in a straight line, the smaller, lighter Ducati was getting away from them on the twisting coast road even carrying the two of us. This was partly due to the fact that Bill was tearing through the bends, flicking the bike over at about 45 degrees on each one. I could feel the flexing of his powerful muscles as I held on to him, and something else. Flooding through the bond was an almost savage excitement, a fierce joy that I could feel bubbling up in him as we flew towards the little town which had been wiped from the maps by the eruption of Vesuvius on that terrible day in August 79AD.

We reached the outskirts of Ercolano and I saw Bill's head move as he looked in the mirrors. There was nothing, we had outdistanced our pursuers for the moment. Bill braked sharply and unexpectedly, throwing me forward against his muscular back and turned in to the ancient site. Before I had a chance to wonder what he was doing we had roared down a side street and pulled up beside one of the ancient roadside bars.

I had visited both Pompeii and Herculaneum before I met Bill and I knew that, while Pompeii was an open site with wide plazas and open buildings of which only the ground floors at most remained, Herculaneum was different. Here a succession of pyroclastic flows had buried the city from the bottom up and there had therefore been much less damage with many structures surviving almost intact to the roof levels. On some streets you almost expected a door to open and a senator to emerge on his way to the bath house. Bill had pulled up the Ducati around a corner from the main street and sheltered completely from the main road. He immediately cut the engine and the lights and we both sat silent, listening.

In just a moment or two we heard the roar of two powerful engines and caught a glimpse of two headlight beams sweeping down the main road and heading away to the south. I let out a breath which I hadn't realised that I was holding and slackened my grip on Bill.

"Do you think we've lost them?" I asked.

"For the moment at least." answered Bill thoughtfully. "When they fail to catch up with us on the next straight they may realise that we've given them the slip. It depends how bright they are." He turned his head and smiled at me. "Most Weres are not that bright! We need to be going in the same direction though, so we'd better head inland and make for Sorrento another way. Are you okay there? I can slow down a bit now if you like!"

"Just a little perhaps" I said "So that I don't have to hang on quite so tight?"

"Shame" he whispered. "I was quite enjoying it!" and before I could think of a smart answer he had fired the engine up again, checked that my hands were firmly around his waist and set off inland at a slightly more sedate pace.

The inland roads were a longer route and we took a few detours to ensure that we were not followed, so it was an hour or so later that we rolled up to an unobtrusive garage door in the tourist town of Sorrento. I was finding it hard to believe that the Vampire Authority could have a base of operations in such a popular resort but what I hadn't realised was that one of the best hotels in the town, built into the side of the cliffs over the Bay of Naples, was in fact owned by The Authority. The beautiful public rooms on the side of the cliff with the enormous picture windows and the terraces looking out to Capri were only the surface. Built deeper into the cliff was the part that the tourists didn't see. The second hotel designed solely for vampires, completely light tight and with extremely tight security.

Bill and I left the Ducati in a garage at the base of the cliff and were escorted up to Ulrich's office in a lift which appeared to be big enough for us to have taken the bike up with us! A security guard stood at the door and tapped on it when we appeared. He opened the door and gestured for us to enter. Ulrich was sitting behind a desk and scowling at a computer screen but he looked up and smiled when he saw us.

"You made it! Well done. I trust they didn't follow you here?" he asked.

"No" said Bill confidently. "We shook them off back at Ercolano." He unzipped his jacket and pulled out the manuscript. "I think this is what you've all been looking for" he said with a smile at me.

Ulrich reached over and placed his hand on the manuscript. "Have you read it?" he asked me.

"Some of it" I answered carefully. I was not quite sure whether he had intended me to or not, but he didn't seem surprised.

"Have you any information we could use?" he asked.

"No, sorry. I only read the first few pages." I paused, unsure if I should ask or not. "I'd like to read the rest though...if that's alright?"

Ulrich smiled "Of course! Without you we might never have got our hands on it at all! I'll arrange for you to have a photocopy. I trust that you will both be our guests here for a while. I've arranged for a suite of rooms to be made available for you and we will provide a security card to enable you to go through into the main hotel" he smiled at me again. "Just show the card to get service in the bars or the restaurants." He turned to Bill "A supply of artificial and donor blood is available in your rooms..." his eyes slid to me again, "...should you require it."

Bill simply smiled and thanked him. "Very well" said Ulrich "I'll leave you to settle in for the day. Perhaps tomorrow we could get together and go over the manuscript, together with the other evidence we have?" He pressed a button on his desk and a security guard came in. "Show Mr Compton and Miss Morgan to their rooms would you?"

The rooms proved to be very impressive although I wondered if I would ever really get used to the lack of windows. There was a spacious sitting room, a large bedroom with an extremely comfortable looking bed which cried out to muscles which were beginning to stiffen from the unfamiliar exercise, and a large bathroom with a big, semi-circular bath.

"Oh yes, a bath. I could just do with a long soak in a hot bath" I said. "Oh wait, all our luggage is in Naples!"

Bill said nothing, merely pointed to the bed where my silk nightdress lay tastefully draped over the pillow.

"They brought our luggage here from Naples?" I asked.

"Looks that way" said Bill "I guess Ulrich has confidence in us!"

Ten minutes later we were both lying in the deliciously hot scented water, relaxing our tired muscles. I laid my head on Bill's shoulder and very nearly nodded off to sleep. After a while Bill stirred and said "The dawn is coming, I can feel it. You need to sleep too."

"I also need to eat!" I said. I think I'll go into the Hotel and see if there's any chance of a meal before I come to bed...if you don't mind?"

"Of course not." You'll be safe here. I'll see you at dusk. He leaned over and kissed me tenderly then climbed out of the bath.

So that's how I came to be sitting on a terrace under an olive tree with a plate of pasta and a glass of wine watching the sun come up over the Isle of Capri.

* * *

I woke slowly, swimming up from the depths of the deep sleep of the day to find Alex in my arms, sleeping peacefully, her black hair lying in a warm blanket over my chest. I tightened my arms around her drowsily and pulled her closer. She was lying on her side, facing away from me and I held her warm naked body close against me, my arm around her waist, one hand cupping one of her soft, warm heavy breasts. I nuzzled my face into the hair at her neck and she gave a tiny little sigh, but did not wake. I loved the feel of her warm soft skin against mine, the sweet scent of her filling my nostrils.

I relaxed beside her and let my mind drift back to the events of the previous night when my precious Alex had once again shown herself to be courageous and resourceful in her determination to help someone she felt to be deserving of her assistance. She had witnessed my horror at the terrible fate which had overtaken Azaria and she was now resolved to help her, just as she had risked her life to help me. I smiled to myself as I recalled the moment when she had placed her hand on my shoulder and pulled herself up onto the back of the motorcycle Ulrich had provided. I closed my eyes and I could almost feel her warm body pressed up against my back, her thighs squeezing mine, her arms around me with her small hands clasped tight against the buckle of my belt.

No! don't think about that! Too late I realised that my drowsy recollections were having a predictable effect on my body. I could feel myself stiffening against her soft, round to my surprise she gave another little sigh and wriggled back against me, shifting her body until that part of me which was now pushing insistently against her, slipped gently between her thighs. I carefully brushed the hair back from her face and looked down at her. She appeared to be asleep. I must admit to a little pang of guilt as I relaxed against her, feeling her warm soft skin against my stiff urgent flesh. I lay quietly beside her and tried to think of something else, something other than the delicious sensations that I was feeling every time I shifted even slightly and my, now rock hard, member rubbed against her skin.

I placed my lips gently to her ear. "Alex?" I whispered sliding my hand down her smooth belly and into the nest of soft dark curls between her legs. My fingers slipped easily into her folds which were coated with that sweet silkiness which I adored. As I gently opened her with my fingers the tip of my stiff member slipped in almost of its own accord, straining to be inside her. "Oh Alex….please wake up precious" I moaned softly "this is driving me insane!" She gave a little whimper and pushed herself back against me. I gasped, fighting the almost uncontrollable urge to simply hold her body down against the bed and take her, I couldn't do this could I? Well yes….actually I could, but I shouldn't! Just at that moment her eyes fluttered open and she turned her head to look up at me.

"Mmmm…..oh Bill," she said sleepily "that is so much better than an alarm clock!"

I leaned over her and kissed her neck, just below her ear. "Hello precious" I breathed "are you okay?"

"Ooooh….yes." she sighed and wriggled against me drawing an agonised moan from my lips. "Oh please…." I whispered, my fingers sliding over the joining of our flesh, spreading her silky fluid along my shaft, lubricating it ready for her, the warmth, the feel, the scent of her driving me mad with lust. She turned her head drowsily, her mouth searching for mine. I pressed my lips to hers and felt her tongue slide between them as she raised her hips and pushed herself back against me, wriggling into a position where she could slide herself onto me.

I held my body absolutely still, my tongue curling against hers and felt the full length of my member slide into her, the little circle of muscle within her squeezing down my rigid shaft until I was holding her body crushed against mine, my shaft buried deep within her. She gave a contented little sigh and tried to move against me but I held her still and resumed my gentle stroking of her soft flesh.

"Whatever have you been dreaming about?" I whispered "I hope this is for me?"

"Mmm…this is what I was dreaming about" she breathed, am I awake now?

"Oh I hope so!" I said "I'm going to have some apologising to do if you're not!"

She gave a little giggle, from which I deduced that she was, in fact, awake. However, I could sense, both from her body's response and through the bond, that she was very close to the edge and so I remained motionless and continued to stroke her gently until I felt her muscles begin to contract around me. I removed my mouth from hers and transferred my lips to her throat, her head pulling back eagerly to present it to me. Just as I thought I could no longer bear the sensation of her body convulsing around me, I bit down on her throat, my fangs slicing easily into her flesh and the taste of her hot, sweet blood on my tongue pushed me over the edge with her as I climaxed, my hips moving involuntarily as I poured my soul out and into her.

We lay for a while, our bodies locked together, not moving, just holding each other. Then Alex gave a sigh, wriggled out of my arms and sat up.

"Shouldn't we be taking a look at that manuscript?" she asked. "Ulrich wants to see us later doesn't he?"

"Sure, we can do that" I said, pulling her back down beside me and reaching over to the bedside table where I had put the photocopy of the manuscript before I fell asleep with the dawn. I piled the pillows at the head of the bed and we sat up against them with the manuscript on my lap. I put my arm around her and we began to read it together from where she had left off.

_I pushed aside a hanging vine and stepped out into an open space. Before me in a gap in the cliffs was a small lake which fed the tributary to the river. A narrow path wound around it and in the centre of the lake was a small island. To one side of where we stood were two stone pillars with a rope tied to one. The rope went over the water to the island and was attached to a log bridge which, when drawn across, would span the lake at its narrowest part._

_Manco ran to the Pillar, untied the rope and began to pull the end of the logs across the narrow gap. Brother Alfonso and I ran to assist him and soon the end of the bridge was resting on the ground at our feet. Manco looped the rope back around the pillar and set off across the bridge with the three of us following behind him. Once on the island Manco headed into the thick undergrowth along a faint pathway. It was evident that not many people ever actually visited this temple and in a few moments we came out into a clearing before a curious building._

_When I first arrived in this strange land I was amazed at the skill of the Inca builders. The walls of their cities and public buildings were made using huge blocks of stone which were cut to fit together so perfectly that not a drop of mortar was required. I had to admit to myself that not even the great cathedrals of Spain were any more impressive than the Corichanca, the great Temple of the Sun in their city of Cuzco. This was a very much smaller structure but made with the same techniques and attention to detail. The entrance was blocked by a great stone door. I took one look at it and thought that we would never in this world be able to move it. You may imagine my surprise therefore when Manco walked up to the doorway and pushed it open with one hand! I followed him through the entrance, looking back to see that the great door was balanced so perfectly that it moved easily with the slightest touch. _

_To the side of the doorway was a basket containing a number of unlit torches and Manco pulled out one for each of us. He then placed them on the floor with the heads together and squatted down next to them. Pulling out two stones from a pouch at his belt he struck the two stones together with the ease of long practice and a spark fell to the dry tinder on the heads of the torches lighting them immediately. I heard a gasp of surprise from Brother Enrique behind me and smiled to myself._

"_Take a torch Brother Diego" said Manco. The Temple of Azaria is always kept in darkness._

"_Why is that?" I asked, picking up two of the torches and handing one to Alfonso._

_Manco gave a shrug "The priests say that the sun god is her enemy" he said._

_We took the lighted torches and walked carefully into the temple. The building was quite small with a low ceiling and there was a thick stone wall built across it only ten feet or so from the doorway with a narrow gap at either end. Beyond the wall was solid darkness and I realised that the wall was cleverly designed to cut off any light from the doorway from reaching into the interior of the temple. There was very little light now even in the entrance as it was nearly sundown and we passed into the main area of the temple holding the torches up before us._

I was so engrossed in the story that the buzzing of my phone went almost unnoticed. Suddenly I realised what it was and reached over to pick it up. Ulrich's voice barked into my ear. "I'd like you and Alex to join me in my office please. Now!" The phone clicked and went dead. Alex and I grinned at each other and, reluctantly, got out of bed and dressed.

* * *

The two security guards escorted Bill and I to Ulrich's office where he was poring over his copy of the manuscript.

"Well?" he asked as we entered. "Have you read it yet?"

"You didn't give us time to finish it." said Bill mildly.

"Sit down" Ulrich gestured at the couch against the wall. "Take all the time you need." We sat down and the three of us resumed our reading.

_I don't know quite what I expected to find behind the wall but it was like nothing I had ever seen before! The floor was composed of large stone flags, again cut to fit together perfectly, and a large stone altar stood in the centre. Other than this the room itself was empty, but the walls! Every few feet a niche had been cut into the walls and in each niche sat an offering to the goddess. Although some of the niches were so old that they were almost completely covered with dirty, grey cobwebs, everywhere there was the gleam of gold. _

"_Madre de Dios!" I turned to see Brother Alfonso cross himself and turn to Manco. "You are right my friend, General Pizarro could never resist this." We paused gazing around in wonder, knowing that this place could soon be destroyed by our fellow countrymen's lust for gold._

"_But where is she, your goddess?" I asked, for there appeared to be nothing else in the temple. I could see no other doors, nor any niche which was big enough to hold a body._

_Manco smiled. "I told you she was hidden brother. Protected by the sign – by that which would destroy her." He walked to the rear wall and pressed a mark carved into it. There was a grinding noise and to our amazement one of the large stone flags before the altar sank into the ground revealing a flight of steps._

_Brother Enrique leapt forward with a gasp and jumped down on to the steps, holding his torch to the slab, trying to see how this had happened. "How does this work Manco?" he asked excitedly._

"_I'm sorry brother" said Manco "I do not know. Only our master stonemasons can understand the secret."_

"_I was a stonemason before I entered the Benedictine Order" answered Enrique "I could understand this!"_

"_Not now Enrique!" I said, "There will be time to examine the mechanism later. Let us find her first!" _

_We held up our torches and walked, with some trepidation on my part at least, down the steps and into the secret crypt of the temple._

_Moments later the four of us came out into the blackness of the crypt, Enrique still trying to see the mechanism which had lowered the great flagstone. But then even he had to tear his eyes away from the stones which were his passion as the flickering torchlight fell on what lay in the centre of the chamber. _

_A raised stone platform stood in the middle of the floor and on the platform was a coffin. But I had never seen such a coffin before in my life. It appeared to be made of wood but almost every inch of the surface was covered with silver plate, heavily engraved with pagan symbols so that it glittered fiercely in the light of our torches. It reminded me somewhat of the reliquaries which are held in some of our Cathedrals and which hold the bones of the holy saints. This also evidently occurred to my two brother monks as they immediately stepped forward as if to open the casket._

_Manco jumped forward and held out his hands. "No….no…you must not open it" he said urgently. "You will release the evil spirit!" Alfonso and Enrique ignored him and moved to the casket._

"_Don't be afraid my friend" I said. "The Lord will protect us. We need to see what is in the box before we can decide what to do with it." I put my hand on his muscular arm and gently drew him back, surprised to notice that he was actually shaking with fear. This caused me some alarm for I had never known Manco to fear anything even during his imprisonment on the dreadful prison hulk, the San Carlos. I comforted myself in my innocence with the thought that it was merely pagan superstition which terrified him so much. I was soon to learn otherwise._

_My brothers had managed to lift the lid of the great casket and laid it against the wall. We picked up the torches and held them up to light the interior as we looked inside._

_I had expected to find dust, or perhaps a few bones. What I saw was completely unexpected. Inside the casket lay the body of a young woman. It was still recognisable although the flesh had shrivelled until the bones of the skeleton showed through. She was dressed in a tunic of some soft woven fabric which had fallen into rags around her and her copper coloured skin appeared to be moulded to her bones. Around her brow she wore a band of gold which had been placed over the long black hair that fell, still thick and glossy, almost to her waist. I gazed down at her in amazement. If she had truly lain here for several hundred years then it was no wonder that these people worshipped her as a goddess._

_I looked up and noticed that my two brother monks were far more interested in the silver plated casket than its contents. _

"_Look at this Diego!" called Alfonso holding up his torch. "It must be worth more than all our order owns!"_

_As I turned to look at the lid of the casket which was leaning against the rear wall of the crypt I thought I heard something, a sigh. I looked back towards the steps down which we had descended. "The wind" I thought "It must have been the wind." I turned back to my brothers with my hand resting on the edge of the casket. _

"_Really Alfonso, you should not even be thinking such….."_

_I suddenly let out a cry of shock as I felt something grasp my wrist. I dropped the torch to the floor where it spluttered and went out leaving me in a patch of darkness beside the casket. In its shadowy depths I imagined that I could see movement and my wrist was being held by the hand of the corpse. I could not believe what I was seeing. The bony fingers were hard and cold against my skin and immensely strong. I cried out and struggled to pull away from her but I was quite unable to break her grip._

_My two brothers turned to see what had happened just as my struggles caused the silver cross around my neck to fall forward out of my habit and onto the goddess's hand. I heard a gasp of what might have been pain from inside the casket and suddenly the grip loosened and her hand fell away from my wrist._

"_Quickly…the lid!" I cried. The three of us heaved the great, silver plated lid back onto the casket and brother Alfonso sat on it panting. The three of us crossed ourselves instinctively and stared at each other._

"_You see?" said a voice quietly._

_I jumped and turned to see Manco standing with his back against the far wall._

"_I warned you that you would release the spirit, but you did not listen. Now you see why she must be kept from your soldiers?" he said._

_I knew that he was right. If General Pizarro learned of this place his only thought would be to strip the silver from the casket and melt it down into bullion to send home to Spain. Without the restraint imposed on her by the silver...I shuddered to think what could happen._

_Brother Enrique placed his hand gently on my arm. "What should we do brother?" he asked. _

"_Could we exorcise the spirit?" asked Alberto._

_Enrique and I looked at him for a moment. "You think that you can exorcise that?" I asked. "Let me know before you make the attempt so that I can be as far away as possible. Even Father Abbott could not deal with an evil spirit that strong!"_

"_Then we should destroy it!" said Enrique getting to his feet._

"_Wait!" I said. "Think about this. Manco said that the girl was human once, the daughter of a king. She was taken over by the spirit. If we destroy the body will we not simply set the evil spirit free?" I could see the brothers thinking about this. "No, Manco is right. We must leave her in the casket where the spirit is confined and hide her. Somewhere she will be safe from Lord Hernando's greed. Somewhere where no-one will ever find her. We cannot risk releasing this spirit." As we stood in the darkness of the temple I realised that there was only one answer. Somehow we must take the casket back with us to Spain and conceal it._

"_How on earth could we possibly get away with that?" asked Alfonso. "You know the army doesn't trust us as it is. If we were found to be trying to smuggle so much silver out of New Spain we'd be hanged!"_

"_If we allow this evil spirit to be released who knows what harm could come to us, and to these people. No, when we leave to return to Spain we must take the casket with us. In my village in the mountains there is a tiny church which is almost abandoned. We shall hide her there somehow."_

_I placed my hand on the silver lid of the casket and bowed my head, remembering the young girl who lay within. "And we must ask all our brothers to pray for her immortal soul."_

Bill slapped the photocopied pages down on the desk and sat back. "Never mind her immortal soul! What about her immortal body! She woke! When they opened the coffin." His face was grey and drawn with pain. "That poor child, we have to find her!"

I remembered the silver chains touching Lazlo's skin and the way his flesh had smoked, the silver burning into him. What would be the effect of the silver surrounding her for all these centuries, I wondered.

"But where did they take her?" I asked looking briefly over the last page of the manuscript. "He just describes boxing up the casket in a wooden crate and loading it into the hold of the galleon which was taking them home to Spain. Brother Diego told the Captain that the crate contained the body of an Inca nobleman who had converted to Christianity, which they were taking back to be buried in consecrated ground." I held the final page of the photocopy in my hand and waved it at Ulrich. "Is this all there is?"

Ulrich gave a frustrated little sigh. "Our agent said the manuscript was incomplete" he said. "The only other information we have is a list of towns in northern Spain which we found in Lazlo's rooms after he fled.

"But how could they hide the casket in a church?" I asked. Even if it was abandoned you'd think that something that distinctive, with Inca symbols engraved on the lid in silver would have been found long ago."

"Not necessarily" said Bill thoughtfully, "remember that Brother Enrique was a stonemason. He was fascinated by the mechanism which opened the vault in the temple. What if he persuaded the Inca stonemasons to show him how it was done? He could have re-created the vault in an abandoned church."

"It was opened by pressing a sign" said Ulrich. "But it doesn't say what the sign was!"

"Okay….let's see what we have." I said. "Diego suggested that he was gong to conceal the casket in an abandoned church in his village in the mountains. Do we know anything else about him, where he came from? Which monastery he lived in?"

"We have no other information about him" said Ulrich. "Monks from monasteries all over Spain travelled to the New World with the Conquistadores."

"We know they were Benedictines" said Bill. He turned back the pages in his hand and read…."_before I joined the Benedictine Order_". "That should cut the numbers down a little. And if he came from a village in the mountains then it's likely that the monastery was in the north. You said that Lazlo had a list of towns in northern Spain? Can we get a list of Benedictine houses in Northern Spain in the 16th Century?"

"Can we?" asked Ulrich.

Bill got up and moved around the desk to Ulrich's computer. "You have an internet connection?" he asked.

"Sure! Help yourself!" Ulrich got up and Bill took his place in front of the computer. In just a few moments he had a list on the screen. "Have you got Lazlo's list?" he asked. Ulrich reached into a tray, pulled out a paper and handed it to Bill who compared it with what was on the screen.

"Yes!" This is a list of all the towns that had a Benedictine House in the 1500's. Lazlo must have seen the manuscript, or at least got some information on Brother Diego, before he left The Authority.

Ulrich sat down in Bill's chair and looked thoughtful for a moment. "So we need to find the village where Brother Diego was born. In the mountains to the north of one of these towns." He smiled "I'll get our security onto it right away, and I suspect they just might pick up Lazlo doing the same thing!"

He sat back with a smile. "You've both been incredibly helpful. I assure you we won't forget….."

"Wait just a moment!" I said holding up my hand to stop him. Bill and Ulrich both looked up at me with identical surprised expressions. "There was something else." I picked up the manuscript and leafed through the pages. "Yes here, Brother Diego is describing his Bible. He says the leather cover is stamped with the crossed arrows which are the sign of his monastery."

"Crossed arrows?" said Bill puzzled. "What could that mean?"

I thought for a moment "Most monasteries are named for saints, right?" I said. "Well the only saint I can think of who was associated with arrows is Saint Sebastian, he was martyred by being shot with arrows."

Bill was way ahead of me, I saw him running a finger down the list of towns. Suddenly he stopped and grinned at me. "San Sebastian!" he said. "On the northwest coast of Spain, just south of the Pyrenees."

I grinned back at him excitedly. "So we're looking for an abandoned church in a small village in the mountains north of San Sebastian!"

Ulrich looked from Bill to me and back again. "Well" he said "it looks like you two are going to Spain!"


	3. Chapter 3

Ulrich might have wanted our help, but he wasn't stupid, far from it. He knew that Lazlo was likely to be in northern Spain somewhere, on the same trail we were, so he wasn't going to send us alone. Not by a long way!

We travelled in a fleet of vehicles, big vehicles, converted for transporting vampires. The largest two were completely blacked out and contained racks for the numerous travelling pods. Bill, Ulrich and, I don't now how many vampire security guards travelled in these. The third vehicle was more like a mobile home with comfortable bunks for the human security guards, and me!

The humans and the vampires drove in shifts so that we didn't stop for more than a few minutes until we reached our destination high up in the Pyrenees. I have to admit that I slept most of the way, partly because I was more tired that I had thought, but mostly because I didn't know when I'd have the chance again.

Towards the end of the journey I was riding in the cab of the lead vehicle with Harry, one of the human security staff. We were chatting idly and I asked him what he thought of working with vampires.

"It's okay" he shrugged. "It can be dangerous, there are some nutters out there you know!" he turned to look at me, "well, I guess you know that right? But it pays well. I've travelled all over Europe with members of The Authority, I've a wife and two children back home in England, hopefully before too long I'll have earned enough to pay off the mortgage so I can go back and settle down."

"But what do you think of them?" I asked curiously. "Do you like them?"

"I don't think about them." he said "It's just a job to me. Some of them are pretty creepy but Ulrich's okay. He seems to be a reasonable guy."

"Were you part of the security for Lazlo?" I asked.

"Oh yeah!" he said "Now there was one seriously creepy vamp!" He grinned at me "Fortunately I wasn't there when he did a runner though! I hear Ulrich was mad as hell!"

I could certainly agree with him there. Somehow the idea of having Ulrich mad at me didn't seem very funny at all.

Eventually we pulled up in the car park of a viewing area in the mountains. Harry had timed it just right, it was almost dusk and as we pulled up the rear doors of the other two vehicles opened and two vampires jumped out and set off immediately to check out the area. I climbed down from the cab and stretched, walking around to the side doors just in time to see Bill and Ulrich jump down from the second vehicle. Bill came over to me a gave me a hug.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm fine." I answered with a smile eyeing him with interest. He was wearing jeans, with the same tough motorcycle boots, a faded Rolling Stones T shirt and what looked like an ex-British Army greatcoat in a dark heavy material that fell to his calves. He smiled down at me, his blue eyes warm and comforting and put an arm around my shoulders.

He turned to Ulrich and said "So where do we go from here?"

Ulrich gestured to the lead vehicle and said "Let's take a look at the map shall we?"

We climbed in through the side door and Bill and I slipped around to the far side of the little table and sat down. Ulrich joined us at the table together with Harry, who was in charge of the human contingent and Vincent who was Ulrich's head of vampire security. Ulrich brought out a map and spread it on the table.

"Now here," he pointed to a spot on the coast "is San Sebastian. We have drawn a semicircle with a 20 mile radius north through the mountains" he explained, tracing a line on the map. "As you can see there are two large towns within this area and half a dozen small villages. There is really no way to know the size of any of these places in the 16th Century so we'll need to check them all. The simplest way to go about this is to check out all the churches in the area. The problem is, we don't really know what we're looking for. The manuscript suggests that Azaria's casket was returned to Spain and hidden in the church in Brother Diego's village, but as to where that was...it's anyone's guess. As to where exactly it's hidden?" he grunted with annoyance. "All we have is Bill's idea that Brother Enrique may have copied the vault from the Inca Temple, and even if we find it, we don't know how to open the vault!"

We all sat around the table and looked at Ulrich with identical expressions of frustration.

He laughed "I'm not being much help here am I?" he said.

Bill looked up from the map. "I would suggest that we try the smaller villages first" he said. "Firstly, because they may be more likely to contain an abandoned church and secondly, because if we try and get into churches in larger towns mob-handed we'll cause a panic."

"Also it's more likely that something hidden in a larger town might have been found by now, during renovation work or something like that?" I said tentatively.

"Good points!" said Ulrich. "Right, Vince you're with me..." He rapidly split us into three mixed groups and gave us two villages each to check. Bill and I had two guards, one human and one vampire.

"Each group will take one of the vehicles and return here, if you find nothing. If you find anything" he turned to the third group, composed of just the security guys, "anything you even think may be significant, call me. I won't be angry if it turns out to be nothing, but we must not miss anything, okay? And be careful. We know Lazlo's looking for the same things!"

Ten minutes or so later we arrived outside the first village.

"We should park here and walk in," said Bill. "We don't want to draw attention to ourselves."

We walked quietly around the edge of the little village, past neat houses with their blinds drawn and their shutters closed, heading for the spire of the church. The two security guards stationed themselves outside while Bill and I went in. As I was walking down the centre aisle I turned to Bill and asked "How come you don't need an invitation?"

"That only applies to a home" he said. "This is a public building, there is no "threshold" to cross, at least not in the magical sense."

"But it's a church, doesn't that make a difference?" I asked.

He smiled at me "You think we shouldn't be able to enter churches? That's what the Fellowship of the Sun would like to think! Whatever we are Alex, however we differ from the humans we once were, it has nothing to do with religion. Azaria is not possessed of an evil spirit, no matter what Brother Diego thought." He stopped and looked down at me. "I was a good Christian, I studied my Bible, took my family to church every Sunday and yet it availed me nothing. All my prayers were not enough to stop Lorena. And believe me...I prayed!" He stood in the aisle of the little church for a moment with that faraway look on his face. Then he appeared to shake himself and said. "Well, this isn't helping is it?"

We spent about half an hour prowling around the building, examining the floor, the walls, the stained glass in the windows, but we found nothing significant.

"We don't even know what it is we're looking for!" growled Bill in frustration as we headed back outside. The guards turned to him as we stepped out. "Nothing" he snapped. The guard pulled a short wave radio from his belt and I heard him reporting in to Ulrich as we walked back to the van and set off for the next village.

This one was even smaller than the first. Bill and I walked into the tiny church and looked around. I could see nothing to distinguish it from any other village church.

"Okay" said Bill, "what now?"

"Well, let's just take a look around shall we?" I said. We split up and wandered around again examining the walls and the pillars. The floor was made of great stone flags with the occasional name carved in them, presumably the names of those buried in the vaults beneath. Judging by the dates no one had been buried here since the sixteenth century. I wandered down the left hand aisle reading the names. I noticed that as I came closer to the altar, the dates got older and the carving more blurred. Suddenly I stopped.

"Bill…Bill, come here!" He was at my side in an instant. I pointed down to the floor at my feet.

Diego Alfonso Rodrigues

Requiescat in Pace

1576

"This is the place, it must be" whispered Bill, he knelt down and gently brushed the dust from the carving with his fingers.

"Wait a moment!" I said "what's that?" Bill's fingers had brushed over a faint cross shape carved into the stone.

"It's just a cross isn't it?" he asked looking up at me.

"No, look" I crouched down beside him and began to blow the dust from the carving. "It's a basic cross shape, yes but it's in three levels, a three stepped cross. I've read about this, it's called a Chakana, it's a Incan symbol." I looked at Bill squatting on the stone flags, his long coat making a pool of darkness on the floor. "What's a pagan symbol doing in a church? It must mean something."

Bill brushed the dust from the strange cross and examined it closely. "I've seen this before" he said, surprised.

"Me too, I've seen it in books."

"No! Just now, here!" He stood up and looked around. "Over here" he said and headed towards a shallow alcove to the left side of the altar. "Look, the way the light shines in here hides it but you can just make it out, see." He ran his fingers over a faint carving in the wall and sure enough, it was the Chakana. Bill reached into his pocket and pulled out a small torch. By shining it at the right angle, the opposite angle from the direction that the sunlight would appear, the cross sprang into view more clearly and something else underneath it.

As I stared at the second carving, a shiver ran down my spine. "This is it Bill, it must be!" The carving was a stylized sun. A circle with half a dozen lines running out from it. "_Protected by the sign – by that which would destroy her_" I whispered. "What would destroy a vampire, Bill? How about the sun?"

This carving appeared to be deeper than the first and, brushing away the dust, the line defining the central circle went deeper than we could see. Bill put his hand on the circle and pushed, gently at first and then more firmly until there was a sudden crack and the circle of stone slid back into the wall with a grinding noise and a puff of dust. Bill snatched his hand back hurriedly and we stood and stared at each other for a moment. Then we stepped out into the aisle and looked around expectantly. "There!" I said pointing behind the altar to where one of the great stone slabs of the floor had sunk down revealing a flight of steps. "It must go down to a hidden part of the vault."

Bill walked over and peered cautiously down the steps. "After you Indiana!" I said with a grin.

Bill frowned at me for a moment. "Perhaps you should stay here, in case something happens down there." he said.

"What if something happens up here?" I asked. "Oh no, I'm sticking with you!"

Bill paused for a moment and then handed me the torch, evidently realising that there was no way I was letting him go down into the vault without me. Together we carefully moved down the steps into the vault.

Although I have had quite a bit of experience with vampires by now I've never had any wish to become one. But I have to admit that there have been a few times when I wished I had some of Bill's attributes, and now was one of those times. He strolled into the crypt as if it was broad daylight whereas I, even with the torch, could hardly see a damn thing! I stood at the bottom of the steps waiting for my eyes to adjust to the faint light coming down from the church above. As I peered into the darkness I could just make out a stone platform in the centre, with something on top of it. Something that Bill was carefully staying away from.

I walked forward with the torch and saw it. Just as Brother Diego had described. A wooden casket covered with engraved silver plate. Bill was prowling warily around it, not getting too close, but I walked up and examined it carefully. In the light of my torch the silver flashed and gleamed, the engraved symbols breaking up the light. I caught sight of something by my foot and bent down to examine it. A piece of the silver plate had broken off, perhaps when the casket was placed here by the three monks. Examining it in the light of the torch I saw that it was engraved with the three stepped cross, the Chakana.

As I knelt in the darkness beside the casket I felt a shift in the heavy air of the crypt and looked up to see Bill fly through the air and hit hard against the rear wall. He landed like a cat, crouched with his hands on the floor, the long greatcoat pooled around him and let out a coughing snarl which could never have come from anything human. Before I could even look round, something had grasped me around the neck and hauled me upright. I heard a hiss right by my ear and Bill froze.

"Now then, it appears that you two have done the job for me" Lazlo's voice breathed into my ear. "Don't even think of moving William..." he called into the darkness. "I think you know what the results would be for your little pet here!"

Lazlo moved out into the dim light that was coming down the steps from the church above.

"Oh, and don't expect your guard to come and help you either. I knew you were a fool William, but even I didn't think you were such a fool as to rely on a human to protect you." I held as still as I could, trying not to show by my reaction that he was mistaken. There was another guard, a vampire. And Lazlo didn't know about him. And he was the one with the radio.

Lazlo thrust his hand into my hair and jerked my head back. Keeping his eyes on Bill he bit me, savagely. I gritted my teeth against the sudden shocking pain. But if the pain of Lazlo's bite was bad, the pain in Bill's eyes as he watched helplessly was worse. Just then I heard a voice call down the steps.

"Lazlo!"

It was Ulrich's voice. I had never before been so pleased that vampires were so fast!

"We know you're down there Lazlo!" called Ulrich.

Lazlo pulled his fangs from my throat, tearing the flesh carelessly. "You don't know that I have Alexandra though!" he replied with a laugh.

He held me tightly by the arm his fangs inches from the ragged wound in my throat and dragged me up the steps and into the church. Bill followed cautiously a few paces behind him, a low rumbling growl coming from him as he crept up the steps watching warily for any opportunity to act.

"Stand back" he called as we emerged from the crypt. "If one of you so much as moves I'll kill her!"

He pulled me up beside him and I saw six vampires, all dressed in the dark combat clothing of The Authority standing in the aisles of the little church. Ulrich was standing by the church door watching us.

Lazlo turned, his eyes on Bill as he came slowly up out of the crypt. He was moving at a relaxed pace but I could see the tension in every muscle in his body and his ice cold eyes never left Lazlo's for a moment. Lazlo sniffed at me and sighed, licking my blood from his long fangs and I knew that, if he got me outside the church, I was done for.

"Right" he said. "This is what's going to happen. You will all stay here. Alexandra and I will leave. If I see anyone leave the church to follow us she dies, understand? She's coming with me!"

"Like hell I am!" I said and slapped my hand up into his face. The hand which he didn't have pinned down, the hand which was still holding the piece of silver plate which had fallen from Azaria's casket.

He gave a shriek as the silver burned into his skin and released me. Bill was on him in a fraction of a second, driving him to the stone floor and, I saw with horror, holding the silver plate to his face. But before I could do anything the six vampires had dragged Bill off Lazlo and flung a net over him. It didn't appear to burn him but there must have been silver in it somewhere as he was struggling weakly and unable to rise.

"Are you alright? Let me see your hand" I said anxiously. Bill's beautiful blue eyes, now glowing again with their usual warmth, lifted to mine from where he crouched on the floor and he held out his hand. The three stepped Inca Chakana was burned into the palm, the skin blackened and smoking.

"Oh my God, Bill!" I fell to my knees in front of him. "What did you think you were doing?" I scolded him, shocked at his injury and the pain still showing in his eyes. "He was down already!"

"I had to be sure he didn't get up again!" said Bill softly. He put his good arm around me and gave me a hug. "Okay, I admit I didn't really think about it." Before I could stop him he had bitten his tongue with one fang and began to lick at the wound on my throat, healing it with his blood.

I looked at his hand again and saw that his flesh was also already starting to heal, he flexed his fingers experimentally and winced with the pain.

"Do you want my blood?" I asked quietly.

He smiled at me. "Later" he said, I'll be fine for the moment. He stood up, still with his arm around me, lifting me with him and holding me tight, unwilling to release me while Lazlo was still around.

Two of the vampires picked up the net containing the struggling Lazlo and carried it out of the church. I heard a faint thump as they tossed him into the back of one of the vans we had brought, the biggest. They returned with something like a large stretcher on two poles which they carefully placed under the casket and then placed a large tarpaulin over the top, covering the silver.

Bill and I stood silently in the nave of the old abandoned church and watched the six vampires, carefully carry the covered casket up from the vault and load it into the back of the huge vehicle.

"What will happen to her?" I asked Ulrich.

"We'll take the casket back to base at Sorrento and open it...carefully!" he said with a smile. "We have our own medical facility with staff who will be in a position to help her, hopefully. To be honest we don't really know what will happen when we open the casket, what condition she will be in. We can only wait and see."

By the time we got back to Sorrento the next evening I had just about recovered from the shock and Lazlo's vicious bite. Bill went with Ulrich and the others to take the casket to the medical facility and I headed back to our rooms. I had a quick shower and changed and was just calling room service for a coffee when Bill walked in.

"What's happened?" I asked.

"Nothing yet" he said. "Ulrich wants to wait until all the medical staff are prepared before they open the casket" he paused for a moment. "He wants us to be there."

"What, me as well?" I asked. "Why?"

"Because he thinks that, after all the effort you have put in to find her, you deserve to see what we have found" said Bill simply. "You don't have to do this. It might be...unpleasant" he said.

"Will you be there?" I asked.

"Yes, I think I need to see this." Bill's face was drawn with pain and I knew he was afraid that our efforts would have come too late for Azaria.

"Then I'll come with you" I said.

He looked up and gave me a faint echo of a smile. "Thank you."

So it was that, two hours later, we stood beside Ulrich in a small room, our backs to the wall while several technicians hovered around the casket. I noticed that most of the technicians were not vampires, although one was. I wasn't sure whether the rest were human though and I certainly wasn't going to ask!

There were several of the vampire security guards in the room as well, two of which, I noticed, were keeping between us and the casket. It appeared that no-one really had any idea what would happen when they opened it. When everything appeared to be ready Ulrich gave a little nod and two of the guards, wearing thick leather gloves, carefully lifted the lid of the casket and set it against the far wall.

There was a hushed pause and then everyone leaned forward to look inside.

Again, it was just as Brother Diego had described. The emaciated body of a young girl lay in the coffin, the ragged remains of a tunic falling around her and a gold circlet in her long black hair. One of the technicians leaned over the casket and examined the body closely.

Hmmm...the flesh is very dry, can't see anywhere to get a line in a vein" he reached into the casket and moved the right arm, examining the inside of the forearm. Suddenly the withered fingers moved and in a second the technician's wrist was held firmly in Azaria's hand. A soft moan came from her dry lips as she tried to rise.

For a moment nobody moved and then suddenly there was chaos in the little room. The two security guards moved to the casket and reached in, one at either end. One held her by the shoulders and the other by the ankles as another technician struggled to insert a needle into her forearm. After two attempts, each of which made me wince, he managed it and hooked up a plastic bag of donor blood. I watched in amazement as the blood was sucked out of the bag in a few moments. The technician hooked up another and shouted for more.

"It's working," breathed Ulrich. "She's taking the blood, that means she'll revive. We must just wait to see what damage may have been done psychologically.

Over the next few weeks Azaria made a remarkable recovery. Bill and I stayed at The Authority's headquarters at Ulrich's invitation and, rather to my surprise, we were both treated with considerable respect by everyone there. We visited Azaria on two occasions before she actually revived fully, the first time she looked incredibly thin, but so much better than she had looked in the casket. On the second occasion I was amazed at the change in her, she looked normal, as if she was just sleeping. The nurses had removed the remains of the tunic and the band of gold, dressed her in a cotton gown and brushed out her long black hair.

Then, two days later, Bill and I were sitting quietly talking beside her bed, when she opened her eyes and looked up at us. For a moment I could see panic in her eyes and I smiled down at her and took her hand gently. "It's okay," I said "you're safe now." I knew she couldn't understand me but the tone of my voice appeared to soothe her and Bill pressed the alarm button for the doctors. In a few moments we were hurried out of the room as what seemed like the entire medical staff tried to get in at once!

Ulrich had gone to the trouble of finding a woman from Peru who spoke Quechua, which is the closest dialect to the language spoken by the Incas and Azaria, who appeared to have a gift for languages, picked up Spanish from her in a matter of days. Within a week she was speaking English better than some people I knew in England!

Bill and I visited her often in her rooms as she tired easily. The doctors said that it would be several months before she was fully recovered.

Miraculously she did not seem to have been permanently affected by her long confinement. Ulrich's doctors spent days excitedly discussing this new evidence of the resilience of the vampire's body, but we were just relieved for her. I asked her once if she remembered anything from her long sleep.

"I remember the beginning" she said quietly. "I remember the struggle as I fought the priests, but I was weakened by the silver and unable to resist them. When they put me in the coffin I thought that I was being punished for something, that soon, they would let me out, but they didn't." I reached over and took her hand. "The hunger" she whispered "I can remember the hunger, the long agony of starvation. But gradually it faded and I slept. I think I was aware of time passing in some way, but I was too weak to do anything, even to care what was happening to me."

She looked up at me, "Someone came, a long time ago. He opened the casket, but then it closed again to darkness. He didn't help me...why didn't he help me?"

I looked over at Bill and saw a tiny red tear run down his pale face. "He didn't understand" he said "he was afraid."

Bill reached over and stroked his finger gently across her cheek. "His name was Brother Diego Rodrigues and he was a monk from the Abbey of San Sebastian. He did help you in the end. He wrote the story down and that was what enabled us to find you, from the clues he left in the manuscript.

"You found me, so Ulrich says?" she smiled up at us.

"Yes, we did" smiled Bill, "but you need to rest now." We got up and Bill kissed her gently on the cheek before we left.

* * *

Alex and I were relaxing in our rooms when there was a knock and Vincent, Ulrich's head of security put his head around the door.

"Bill, Ulrich would like a word with you in his office" he said.

I got up and turned to Alex "Were you going to see Azaria?" I asked.

"Yes" she said, looking up from her book. "I'll be going in a minute, just as soon as I finish this chapter."

"I'll see you later then" I said giving her a kiss on the cheek as I left.

Vincent escorted me to Ulrich's office and waited outside.

"You wanted to see me?" I said, closing the door.

Ulrich was sitting at his desk looking thoughtful and he turned to me as I came in and sat down. "Good evening Bill" he said "I understand that you've been seeing quite a lot of Azaria?"

"Well, yes" I said, surprised "is that a problem?"

"No, no, not at all, quite the opposite in fact, she seems to enjoy your visits." He paused and thought for a moment as if unsure quite how to word his next question. "What do you think of her?" he asked carefully.

I sat back in the chair and thought for a moment. "Well, she's made remarkable progress, she seems to have recovered almost completely. She is a charming young girl, when I think of what she has suffered..." my voice tailed off as I felt a lump in my throat.

Ulrich smiled. "You like her?"

"Yes, I like her very much." I answered, wondering where this was going.

Ulrich stood up and began to pace up and down the office, something I had noticed him do when he was a little stressed. "According to the records of The Authority you have never been a Maker." he said suddenly.

"No." I said shortly "I have not."

"Why is that?" he asked.

For just a moment I thought about walking out of the office, my feelings on this subject were no business of his, but then I thought better of it.

I sighed and said "because I could not bear to inflict on another the suffering I felt when I was turned." I watched him, waiting for some sarcastic remark, but he merely nodded and said "I understood that you and your Maker had a...difficult relationship. So it's the actual process that you couldn't cope with, not the responsibility?"

"Well, I suppose so, yes." I said, puzzled. "Why do you want to know this?"

Ulrich turned back to me and stood watching me carefully. "You will appreciate" he said "that Azaria, although she is technically, very old, in fact was only 18 years old when she was turned and has very little experience of the world. She certainly is not equipped to survive in the modern world on her own."

He began to pace again. "We appear to have two choices in how to deal with this. Either we keep her with us here, or we find someone who can care for her, teach her how to live as a vampire in this new world."

He turned back to me "I can't think of anyone better able to do this than you Bill."

"What!" I sat up, shocked beyond belief. "You want me to act as her Maker?"

"Well, we're certainly not planning to give her back to Lazlo!" He laughed "Why not? You are Charles's most popular sheriff, you run your area well and are well liked and respected, you're even a bit of a media personality, and most important of all Azaria likes you, trusts you, and has asked for you."

"She asked for me?"

"You and Alex rescued her from six hundred years of torment Bill, why would she not like you? She adores you...Alex too. She is well aware of what Lazlo did to her, his terrible betrayal still hurts her badly. You also had a bad relationship with your maker, you have a lot in common. You can teach her to be a good vampire and Alex can teach her to be a modern woman. It's ideal as far as I can see!"

I must admit that the more I thought about it the more I realised that he was right. After all, this was what I had wanted wasn't it? To help her. But what would Alex think?

I looked up at Ulrich and said "I'll have to talk to Alex. For what it's worth, I think you're right and I would like to help her, but I love Alex and if she doesn't agree then I'm afraid..."

"Fine, you talk to her" smiled Ulrich. She's a sensible girl, I'm sure she'll agree with me!"

I got up and headed back to our rooms, my mind reeling.

Opening the door to our rooms I smelt the perfumed bath oil that Alex used and saw steam coming from under the door to the bathroom. I smiled to myself and quietly opened the door. Alex was lying in the large semicircular bath, her long black hair falling over the side looking totally relaxed. I leaned against the doorframe for a moment enjoying the view, my eyes sliding over her slim, lean body from the full, heavy breasts down her flat belly to the dark nest of curls between her smooth thighs.

I knew that I had made no sound but she knew I was there and turned her head to look up at me.

"Want to join me?" she asked with a little smile that made a shiver run down my spine.

I stepped into the room, pulling my shirt off over my head. "Mmmm...yes please!" I said.

* * *

As I lay in the bath I felt a sudden warmth flow through me and I looked up to see Bill leaning casually on the doorframe watching me. Suddenly a bath with Bill seemed like a really good idea.

"Want to join me?" I asked.

Bill's shirt was half off before he had come into the room! I watched him unfasten the buckle of his belt and slide the jeans down his strong thighs and noticed with a smile that, yet again, he wasn't wearing anything underneath. He kicked off the slippers from his bare feet, stepped out of the jeans and walked over to the bath. I couldn't take my eyes off him. He was pale and beautiful like an alabaster statue only gloriously aroused. He leaned down and put a hand on the edge of the bath beside my head, stepping in and sitting down beside me. He put his arm around my shoulders and kissed the top of my head.

"There's something we need to discuss" he said as I passed my hand over his chest, idly running my fingers through the dark hair.

"What, now?" I asked running my hand down his belly.

"It's important" he said as I slipped my hand between his legs and curled my fingers around his substantial erection.

"Really important?" I asked squeezing him in my hand and sliding it down his substantial length, my movements assisted by the oil in the bathwater.

"Maybe not that important..." Bill eased himself further into the hot water, parting his legs slightly.

"I could stop if you like?" I offered helpfully "If we need to talk about it?"

"No...no please don't" he groaned. "It can wait...really!" He pulled me closer to him and gently kissed the spot on my throat where Lazlo had bitten me. Then he moved his lips up to mine and kissed me tenderly as I continued to massage his stiff shaft under the hot water, sliding my thumb over the tip with each stroke. As I stroked him gently his kisses became deeper, more passionate and I felt his free hand slide down my body and begin to stroke me in turn. I squeezed him tighter as I parted my lips and his tongue and two of his long, elegant fingers slipped into me simultaneously, making me gasp with pleasure. We lay together in the steaming bathwater, the movements of our hands bringing an almost unbearable pleasure to each other's bodies in almost synchronised movements, our mouths locked together in a deeply passionate kiss.

I felt the muscles in Bill's thighs shift as he braced his feet against the far side of the bath and lifted me up pulling me on top of him and sliding his fingers out of me. I gave a little moan of loss but he immediately replaced them with something else, something bigger.

He threw his head back over the side of the bath. His long fangs gleaming in the harsh lighting as he gripped my hips and rocked me on top of him, massaging his long thick shaft with my body as I swayed helplessly in his hands, completely lost to the incredible blinding pleasure he was tearing from my flesh.

"Oh, Bill..." I moaned as I felt as though my body was about to fly apart and I leaned forward to grip his hard muscular shoulders, convinced that it was only his hands holding my hips that was preventing me from floating away into the darkness.

Afterwards I lay in his arms on the bed, although I had no memory of getting out of the bath. I guessed he must have carried my still twitching body back into the bedroom and laid me down beside him.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" I asked sleepily.

"Oh yes!" He said "before you distracted me you wicked girl!" he smiled down at me, his gentle blue eyes full of love and warmth.

"I have a favour to ask of you". He looked at me seriously "you don't have to make any decision now, I can see that you're half asleep already!"

"What is it?" I asked.

"Do you understanding the meaning, the relationship between a Maker and their Progeny?" he asked.

I struggled to sit up a little. "Well, only what you've told me about you and Lorena." I said. Why?"

"Our relationship was...difficult, unhealthy" he said slowly, searching for the right words. "It shouldn't be that way" he paused. "'I've never been a Maker" he said. "I've never...I couldn't do that to anyone."

I realised that he was effectively telling me that, in order to have a "child" he would have to kill someone!"

"But you would have liked to, wouldn't you?" I said softly, "if there was any other way?"

Bill looked at me with those deep blue eyes that I felt were peering into my soul.

"How is it that you can see so easily into my heart?" he whispered. "Yes, I would have liked to have a child, and now Ulrich may have made it possible. But you would have to agree Alex."

For a brief moment I thought he meant that he wanted to turn me. But that would not be "another way." I looked puzzled and he said softly "Azaria. Ulrich wants me to be a...surrogate maker I suppose, to her. To take care of her and teach her about this modern world she has woken into. She would have to come and live with me, with us. You could help her too, she'll need a friend, someone she can trust. Will you help me?"

He watched me, waiting for my response. "I told Ulrich that I would only be able to accept if you agreed."

I smiled at him, "I think that's a wonderful idea Bill, you'll make a great father!" I looked at him with my sternest expression. "So long as you don't have the same kind of physical relationship that you had with Lorena!"

He looked puzzled for a moment, and then horrified. "Of course not!" he exclaimed "that would be...inconceivable!"

I giggled at his outraged expression. "Oh you...!" before I could move he had grabbed me and pulled me down into the soft pillows with a sigh.

It was now two months later and we had been back home for several weeks. Ulrich had been advised by his medical staff that Azaria should stay at the facility until she was fully recovered and Bill had received a call to say that they were on their way and would bring her to Carmilla's tonight.

I sat at the bar with Bill watching the customers on the dance floor, waiting for them to arrive. I had just ordered my second drink of the evening when the door to the club opened and Ulrich walked in followed by Azaria. She was wearing a faded pair of jeans and a white T shirt and her long black hair was braided into a plait down her back. Her olive skin and chocolate brown eyes positively glowed with health as she looked around the inside of the club with an eager interest.

I saw Bill smile as he walked over to her and she glanced up at him shyly. He spoke to her for a few moments and suddenly a broad smile appeared on her face. I heard Ulrich laugh and look over to the bar where I was sitting. Azaria's eyes followed his gaze and saw me. With a little cry she ran across to the bar and flung her arms around me.

"Alex! Oh I am so pleased to see you!" she said, then paused, a slight frown creasing her perfect brow. "You are sure that you will not mind? That Bill is to take care of me?"

I hugged her and said "Of course not, he wants to help you, we both do."

She smiled at me a little shyly and said "He said he wants to have a party for me, to welcome me." She looked puzzled for a moment "a special kind of party he called it...now what was it..." Her brow creased again in thought. "Oh yes!" she cried excitedly. "That's it, a Fancy Dress Party!"

I looked over to where Bill was standing with Ulrich, watching me with that secretive little smile of his. "Bill Compton" I thought "You are in a world of trouble!"


End file.
